mardi 25 juillet 2017

Conservative Case for Single-Payer

...Why does socialized healthcare cost less? Getting rid of private insurers, which suck up a lot money without adding any value, would result in a huge savings, as much as 15*percent by one academic estimate published in the American Journal of Public Health. When the government flexing its monopsony muscle as the overwhelmingly largest buyer of medical services, drugs and technology, it would also lower prices-thats what happens in nearly every other country...

The objections to socialized healthcare crumble upon impact with the reality. One beloved piece of folklore is that once people are given free healthcare theyll abuse it by going on weird medical joyrides, just because they can, or simply let themselves go because theyll have free doctor visits. I hate to ruin this gloating fantasy of lumpenproletariat irresponsibility,*but people need take an honest look at the various health crises in the United States compared to other OECD*(Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries...

The real obstacle may be the Democrats. As Max Fine, last surviving member of John F. Kennedys Medicare task force, recently told*the Intercept, *Single payer is the only real answer and some day I believe the Republicans will leap ahead of the Democrats and lead in its enactment, he speculated, just as did Bismarck in Germany and David Lloyd George and Churchill in the UK. For now, an invigorating civil war is raging within the Democrats with the National Nurses Union, the savvy practitioner-wonks of the Physicians for a National Health Program, and thousands of everyday Americans shouting at their congressional reps at town hall meetings are clamoring for single-payer against the partys donor base of horrified Big Pharma executives and affluent doctors. In a few years there might even be a left-right pincers movement against the neolib/neocon middle, whose unlovable professional-class technocrats are the main source of resistance to single payer...

I would definitely prefer single-payer to the current system, but find universal public health care greatly preferable to any health insurance coverage, even single-payer coverage. The debate and discussion between Universal Health Care and Medicare for All, however, would be the best fight our country could hope to have.